The history of the humble Tomato
Andrew F. Smith recorded in 'The Tomato in America', that the plant probably originated in the highlands on the western coast of South America. He notes that there is no real evidence that the plant was cultivated or even eaten before the Spanish arrived. Other researchers have pointed out that this is by no means conclusive, as many other fruits in continuous cultivation in Peru are not present in the limited historical record. Unfortunately, much horticultural knowledge was lost after the arrival of Europeans. The Roman Catholic Church had a policy of burning pre-Columbian information as pagan. We can only wonder at what important horticultural knowledge has been lost perhaps forever.
Eventually the plant migrated to Central America. The Mayans and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking, and it was definitely being cultivated in southern Mexico, and most liekly in other areas too, by the sixteenth century. The large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, had originated and was encouraged in Central America. Andrew Smith states that this variant is the direct ancestor of some of the modern cultivated vairieties.
Distribution by the Spanish
After their conquest of South America, the Spanish distributed the plant throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. Tomatoes were also brought to the Philippines, from which point tomatoes were exported to southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent.
Of course, the Spanish also brought it to Europe. It grew very easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation eventually began in the 1540s. It was most liekly eaten shortly after it was introduced, though it was certainly being used as food by the early 1600s in Spain. The earliest known cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, however the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.
 Italy and their love affair with the plant
Because the plant was similar to its nightshade congeners, it was assumed for years to be a poisonous fruit in Italy, where it was grown only as a decorative plant. Eventually the peasant classes discovered that it could be eaten when more desirable food was scarce. Eventually this developed into a whole cuisine based on tomato dishes, as the wonders of the fruit became overtly obvious. But this took several centuries, wide acceptance did not happen until the 18th century.
Britain
The plant was not grown in England until around the 1590s, according to Smith. One of the earliest known cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597 (largely plagiarized from continental sources - excuse the pun!) is also one of the earliest discussions on the plant in England. Gerard knew that it was eaten both in Spain and in Italy. Nonetheless, he believed that it was poisonous (the leaves and stems are indeed poisonous but the fruit is safe). Gerard's views were influential, and the plant was generally considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and also in its North American colonies. By around the mid 1700s, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century the Encyclopaedia Britannica stated the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. Tomatoes were also originally known as 'Love Apples', possibly based on a mistranslation of the Italian "pomo d'oro" (golden apple) as pomo d'amoro.
North America
Andrew Smith states that the earliest reference to tomatoes in British North America is from 1710, when the herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today known as South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century they were cultivated on some of the Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the South as well. It is possible that people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time, and in general they were grown as ornamental plants rather than as food. Cultured people such as Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris and sent some seeds home, knew that the fruit was edible, but many of the less well-educated did not.
 However, according to Smith, this changed around the early 19th century, first in the Southern states and then also throughout the country. They now began to be used regularly as food. In some regions this may have happened quite quickly; as for example, in an 1824 speech before the Albemarle Agricultural Society - Jefferson's son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph discussed the transformation of farming in Virginia due to the introduction of new crops. He also mentioned how tomatoes were virtually unknown ten years earlier, but then by 1824 everyone was eating them because it was believed they kept one's blood pure in the heat of summer. Perhaps this was an early understanding of tomatoes anti oxidant properties?
As Randolph's speech shows, medicinal powers were sometimes attributed to tomatoes. This idea that they could be used as a healing agent was fully developed by Dr. John Cook Bennett. He believed that they could treat diarrhea, dyspepsia, and other stomach ailments. Bennett's claims were widely publicized in the 1830s, mainly because they were fun to mock, and also in part because it was still a novelty. Soon pills were being sold! People began to testify to miracle cures caused by the healing powers of tomatoes. Tomatoes were even recommended as a cure for cholera. It is perhaps a possibility that it really did "cure" ailments which were due to shortages of fresh fruit in the diet.
The mania lasted only a few years, but it boosted consumption enormously, and contributed to an increase in sales throughout the 1830s and 1840s. By the end of tthe 1840s, they were an established part of the American diet.
Cultivation and uses
Of course, the plant is now grown world-wide for its edible fruits, with literally thousands of cultivars having been selected - all with varying fruit types - and for optimum growth in differing growing conditions. Cultivated ones will vary in size from cherry tomatoes (about the same 1-2 cm size as the wild variety) up to 'beefsteak' tomatoes that are 10 cm or more in diameter. Today, the most widely grown commercial ones tend to be in the 5-6 cm diameter range. Most cultivars produce red fruit, however a number of cultivars are grown with yellow or orange fruit. Those grown specifically for canning are often elongated, 7-9 cm long and 4-5 cm diameter. These are usually known as plum tomatoes.
They are one of the most common garden vegetables and along with the zucchini can have a reputation for outproducing the needs of the grower!
 Varieties and cultivars
There are many varieties grown for various purposes. Here we attempt to list some of the more common varieties. Heirloom varieties are becoming increasingly popular, mainly among home gardeners and organic producers. Heirloom varieties tend to produce more interesting and flavorful crops (at the possible cost of some disease resistance). Hybrid plants remain common, but they tend to be heavier producers and sometimes combine unusual characteristics of heirloom varieties with the ruggedness of normal commercial ones.
Varieties are divided roughly into several categories, usually based on shape and size. In North America "Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce. Beefsteak tomatoes are very large and often used for sandwiches while plum tomatoes or paste tomatoes are bred for a higher solid content for use in sauces and pastes. The cherry tomatoe is small, often sweet and generally eaten whole in salads.
Some commonly grown varieties can include:
* Mortgage Lifter (a popular heirloom beefsteak)
* Sweet 100 (a very prolific cherry tomato)
* Better Boy
* Big Boy (a very common garden cultivar in the United States)
* San Marzano (a plum tomato popular in Italy)
* Early Girl (an early-maturing globe type)
* Patio (bred specifically for container gardens)
* Gardener's Delight (a smaller English variety)
* Marmande (a beefsteak variety from southern France)
* Moneymaker (an English greenhouse variety)
* Brandywine (a pink beefsteak type)
* Roma VF (a plum tomato common in supermarkets)
* Rutgers (an heirloom commercial variety)
* Beefsteak VFN (a common disease-resistant hybrid)
* Santa F1 (a closely guarded Chinese grape tomato cultivar popular in the USA and parts of southeast Asia)
Most modern varieties are now smooth-surfaced, but some older cultivars (and some modern beefsteaks) often show some pronounced ribbing. Ribbing is a feature that may have been common to virtually all precolumbian varieties. What's more, tomatoes come in colors other than red, including yellow, orange, pink and even purple, though such tomatoes are not usually available in markets.
There is also a considerable gap between commercial and home gardener varieties. Home varieties are often bred for flavor to the exclusion of any or all other qualities, while commercial varieties are bred for such aspects as consistent size and shape, disease resitance and pest resistance, and suitability for mechanized picking and shipping.
This is often to the detrmient of the flavour. | |
